Kibbee Gallery is an alternative art space located in the Poncey-Highland neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia for emerging artists to display their work.
Open Thursday, Friday and Saturday 2pm - 6pm.

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Joe Tsambiras, along with 3 other artists in a collaborative exhibition, won Creative Loafing’s Reader’s Picks Award for Best Opening and Best Gallery Show in 2010. Now, opening at Kibbee Gallery on April 7th, Tsambiras has curated a group printmaking show featuring 13 Atlanta Printmakers.

ECHOES

Andrea Sanders, 3 am Train to enlightenment

Interview with Joe Elias Tsambiras

Q: Joe, can you tell us a little bit about the show you are curating at Kibbee Gallery next week.

A: Echoes gathers together thirteen artists who are working in the printmaking medium. It is a celebration of printmaking and the specific qualities it contains…

Q: What was the original idea behind organizing this show?

A: The initial idea came because I wanted to put together a book or a zine that would be a compilation of artists’ and poets’ work that, when combined together, would create a community displaying how people could coexist together in a creative, functional way... and also not be boring. That was about six years ago. That idea has formed into this group show. Books and galleries have very much in common, except that books are moving, portable galleries. Unlike a book, a gallery is less maneuverable, and yet… it’s like a stationary book with walls… and it’s also temporal.

Q: How did you choose the artists that will be in the group exhibition?

A: I knew I wanted the show to be all printmaking, so I looked to the Atlanta printmaking community first. There are so many good artists here in Atlanta, and I didn’t just want to ask anyone whose work I just felt was good. I have been thoughtful in selecting artists with a specific temperament so that when their work coexists in the show something new and interesting may emerge. Basically all of these artists not only care tremendously about what they create, but they also have the technical skills to pull off what they set out to do.

Q: Does the show’s title, Echoes, describe a common thread shared between the artist’s works that will be on view?

A: Mainly I just like the word. I think it works also because it is about repetition, which is a large part of the printmaking process. Also it is about sound and vibrations… and music is very important to me.

Q: I understand that you will also have some of your own prints in Kibbee next week. Can you tell me what those pieces are about?

A: Yes. I have two pieces in the show. They are about love, wounds, beauty, movement.

Q: Is this a theme you have been working with for a while now? And how has it changed/evolved over time?

A: Yes. I’m getting closer to what I want to portray every day. I want to create work that moves me… moves people. If I keep working hard, by age ninety I will be able to create moving pictures.

Q: In just a few words, describe what one should expect to experience when viewing the Echoes exhibition.

A: Well, technically, the full title of the show is Echoes: Adventures in Printmaking. Expect not to be bored. I’d like to think of this show like an episode of 3-2-1 Contact if anyone remembers that PBS gem.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

a play about the life of Atlanta based artist Robert ShererMarch 8-25, 2012

Also, while you're in the neighborhood, stop by Kibbee Gallery

to see some of Robert Sherer's

Blood Works and American Pyrography on display.

An Interview with Robert Sherer

Q: How many
hours a week do you spend working in your studio?

A: If you
combine the amount of time I spend conceptualizing with the time I spend creating
the physical product, I spend on the average about 20 hours per week in the
studio during the academic semesters.

When school
is not in session I practically live in the studio.

Q: Do you
have any special tools or devices unique to your creative process?

A: Yes, for the Blood Works pictures I
use hypodermic syringes, blood thinners, test tubes, hermetic containers,
tourniquets and lots of Band-Aids. And
for the American Pyrograph pictures I use electric wood-burning tools, a
micro torch, wood veneers, furniture stains and even more Band-Aids.

Q. Can you
describe your process with the American Pyrography series?

A. Since
the subject matter of the series concerns my youth in the 1970s, I derive my
images from classic illustrations of the period. I maintain a large digital library of source
imagery that I use for props to accessorize my pictures. The final maquette is an amalgamation of
original drawing, derivation and cut-and-paste appropriation. Once the drawing is mastered I then transfer
it to a sheet of maple veneer to create the actual wood-burning. I use an electric wood-burning tool to sear
the linear aspects into the wood and then I use various wood stains to colorize
the image. I believe that using well-known
camp craft materials and techniques adds an air of authenticity to the works.

Q: Can you
tell me a little bit about “Blood Works” and how you came to the idea to do
such a powerful series?

A: Actually,
the medium came first (due to an accident with an X-Acto razor blade) and then
the ideas came afterward. What self-respecting artist wouldn’t want to make
pictures from a jar of their own blood?

It,
however, took me a long time to realize the profundity of the medium and the
intense expressions that result from combining the blood of differing religions, races,
genders, political stances, HIV statuses.

Q: What
were you trying to elicit in the viewer with these works?

A: In the
beginning I mostly just wallowed in the confrontational aspects of the medium
and tried to shock people with the bloodiness of the blood. I didn’t really see the bigger picture until
people began to have strong emotional reactions and interpretations of the
pieces. It was only then that I began to
understand the politics of blood: the
sanguine identity of people; the juxtapositions and blending of peoples; and
ultimately the consanguinity of all people.

Q: What
projects are you currently working on?

A: Most of
my time is being spent creating works for my solo show in August for Lyman-Eyer
Gallery. I am now also in emergency mode
because I have just been informed that the Kennesaw State University Press will
publish my Blood Works art book in July and there are still 8-10 new images from
the new Blood Money series that I want in the book.

Q: Tell us
about this new series.

A: The
works are created from high-resolution images of Confederate currency. I isolate details from the dollars and subvert them to reveal the hypocrisy,
stupidity and evil of the Civil War South. To underscore the subject matter the pictures
are propped with racist ideas taught to me by my elders. It is my hope that the artworks will make
them feel betrayed by a “Son of the South”.

Q: Do you
think it is important for artists to move to a major art community like NYC to
make a name for them?

A: Yes, if
you are an untalented trust fund baby I highly recommend that you move to NYC
to buy an art career with your inheritance and family connections. Otherwise, if you are like the rest of us, it
really isn’t as important as it used to be. I believe that history isn’t going to view the
NYC art world nearly as favorably as some 20th Century dinosaurs
might hope. Really, how are we to take
seriously a city that purports to be at the helm of showcasing American art
while it steadfastly ignores almost all American art produced outside of its
city limits? Personally, I am not crazy
about Regionalism and the homogenized look of a lot of New York art can
immediately identify its origin within the neighborhood of Chelsea, Manhattan. The city’s late-empire decadence put the lid
on the coffin, and the Internet provided the nails because it is now possible
for artists to develop substantial reputations for themselves without moving to
the big city.

Q: How long
have you been teaching art at a University level and do you think a formal
education in art is important for an artist?

A: I taught
for two years in Pennsylvania, two years at Atlanta College of Art and for eleven
years at Kennesaw State University. Personally,
attending university was the best thing that ever happened to me. In fact, I love it so much that I have dedicated
my life to the academy. But, being that
one of the great influences on my life was a self-taught artist I cannot
prescribe a formal art education for everyone.

Q: What
aspect of your artwork would you say was influenced by your relationship with
Howard Finster and your experience staying at Paradise Gardens?

A: Howard
didn’t influence my artwork very much but he did teach me how to cope with loss
and to live again. During the time of
our association I was dealing with a lot of serious personal issues, including
notions of suicide resulting from the deaths of many of my friends. The play Hidden Man revisits my time
with Howard and it portrays my struggle with the voices the dead and the living
vying for my attention.

Q: In what
way do you think you may have influenced him?

A: It would
be impossible and imprudent for me to speculate upon my possible influences on
Howard Finster. I can, however, say that
he loved a lot of the ideas I expressed about the condition of being an artist,
about the art world at large, and about our relationship with nature. He especially appreciated that I had a formal
art education and was enthusiastic to share art history with him. I once brought a copy of Janson’s History
of Art to Paradise Gardens and he almost drove me crazy with his questions
about the history of art, as if he wanted me to explain the entire advent of
man in a conversation. He was a genuine
autodidact with an insatiable appetite for knowledge.

Q: Do you
have any advice for young budding artists of today’s generation?

A: Your
most valuable possession is your time.
Stop wasting it on trivial matters such as amassing “friends”. Life is not a popularity contest, especially
for artists.

Learn to be
selfish with your valuable time. Our
modern lives are filled with too much information, too many possible paths, too
many unrealistic expectations, too many distractions, too much junk, etc. It is impossible to keep up with it all. Foolish people think that they can somehow do
it all. As a result, they become
dabblers at many things and masters of nothing.

Q: If you
could live multiple lifetimes, would you choose to be a visual artist again or
would you try something else in the next life?

A. I really
can’t answer this question with any degree of certainty because all I have ever
known is the life of a visual artist. My
obsession with the visual realm is at the core of my being and is really all I would
want to possess in any speculative future life.
I suppose in three or four lifetimes I might get a little tired of being
a visual artist and would want to pursue being a polyglot, a novelist or
pianist.